Category: Resource type

Wildlife Filmmaker

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Wildlife Filmmaker3261 views

What it is: National Geographics Wildlife Filmmaker lets students make custom nature films complete with animal video clips, sounds, music, and text captions. The site is easy to use and films can be saved on the site or shared through email.

How to integrate Wildlife Filmmaker into the classroom: Wildlife Filmmaker is an excellent place for students to display knowledge after researching wildlife. Research on different animals can be completed right from the National Geographic website or collected from several sources. Students put a lot of thought into their wildlife videos since they are shared with other students. Students can send their videos to you via email for grading and sharing with the rest of the class. Plan a film festival where you can use a projector to show students finished products. Wildlife Filmmaker can also be used as a creative writing activity. Students can select video clips and use the caption tool to write a story about what is happening in the film (these get very creative!) Additionally the site would make a nice basic introduction to movie editing because of its use of timelines. It would be a great activity to lead into using iMovie HD where timelines are used to separate sound tracks and video.

Tips: The National Geographic site does contain advertisement banners. I use the advertisements as a mini lesson to teach students how to recognize the difference between ads and site content. We also discuss what the purpose of website ads.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Wildlife Filmmaker in your classroom.

Links Galore!

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Links Galore!2595 views

Normally I don’t like to just list links…I would much rather give you a snapshot of a website, give you ideas for implementing it into your classroom, and tips on what has worked for me. Today is different. If you are like me, you read a new idea and immediately want to implement it in your classroom but don’t always have the right resources to make it happen. I have so many links for podcasting that I am going to give them all to you in one shot and then break them down in another post. If you have the podcast itch, get podcasting and browse the links below for some hosting ideas.

The following links are FREE podcast hosting sites (a place to store your teacher or student created podcasts where listeners can access and/or subscribe to your podcasts).

Global Classroom http://globalclassroomusa.org- Expect to see a post dedicated to this one, it is so much more than just a podcast hosting site.

My Podcast http://www.mypodcast.com

Podango http://podango.com

Switchpod http://www.switchpod.com

Podbean http://www.podbean.com

Get Ready to Read!

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Get Ready to Read!2992 views

What it is: Get Ready to Read is a site that supports early childhood literacy. I don’t know how I have missed this one in the past! It is an excellent resource for teachers. If you teach pre-k through first grade or are a remedial reading teacher, make sure to take a look at all this site has to offer. The program is designed to help early education professionals to equip children with the basic skills necessary for learning to read. The site offers tools for screening children for pre-reading skills and provides skill strengthening activities both on and offline to ensure reading success.

How to integrate Get Ready to Read into the classroom: Use the Get Ready to Read Program to screen your students for reading skills. Use this assessment to guide your reading program and help individualize instruction based on your students needs. Print out and use the 36 offline activity cards with your students. These can be used as reading centers, for individual learning, or for whole class instruction. Set up your classroom computers with the Get Ready to Read online activities. These interactive stories about Inky and Gus’ underwater adventures can be used with a projector for whole class participation, in centers, or on individual computers in a lab setting.

Tips: This site is a completely free resource for teachers and parents, be sure to involve parents in early literacy activities. Print out the parent brochure for additional information on the Get Ready to Read program for parents.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Get Ready to Read in your classroom.

ClickCaster

Kelly Tenkely4 Comments on ClickCaster4508 views

What it is: ClickCaster allows you and your students to create a podcasting channel that can be subscribed to via RSS feed as well as publish and embed your podcast for integration with classroom blogs or wikis. The ClickCaster platform is extremely easy to use with professional results. ClickCaster offers different levels of service the most basic is free but only includes 125MB of storage. The other levels are very affordable and ClickCaster gives teachers $3 off of their standard package.

How to integrate Click Caster into the classroom: ClickCaster is a great way to publish your classroom podcasts. Other classrooms and parents can subscribe to the podcast through RSS feed or visit your channel for a complete list of your podcasts. Publish a weekly radio show where your students give a synopsis of what they have learned throughout the week. Or, create podcasts where your students get to be the “expert” on a subject. No matter what the subject, ClickCaster will make publishing your podcasts for others simple.

Tips: Sign up for the basic limited account (free) to find out just how simple ClickCaster is to use…you will be hooked in no time!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using ClickCaster in your classroom.

Doodle 4 Google

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Doodle 4 Google2418 views

What it is: Google is encouraging students to put their creative doodles to work and giving the opportunity to be a part of Google history. Doodle 4 Google is a contest for schools that invites kindergarten through twelfth grade students to doodle on Google’s logo and see what they come up with. The theme is centered around the question “What if…” Students can take this question and go anywhere with it…for example: What if I could live underwater, outer space, or colonial America? What if I could build any invention I wanted? What if I could see into the future? Students “doodle” their logo on an 8.5″ x 11″ piece of white paper. They can do this with any medium (as long as it isn’t 3-D) including using the computer.  The winning doodler will receive a $10,000  college scholarship and their design will take over the home page for the day.  As if that isn’t exciting enough, the winning school will also receive a $25,000 technology grant!!

How to integrate Doodle 4 Google into the classroom: This one needs to be started soon, the registration deadline is March 28, 2008 and the doodles need to be submitted by April 12, 2008. Each school can only submit 6 entries so you may have to hold a classroom vote to narrow down which doodles get sent to Google. A panel of judges will select 40 finalist doodles and the public will vote for the best. The winning doodle will be displayed on May 22, 2008 on Google’s homepage. Google provides the original artwork for the students to work from. Google has also provides some awesome lesson plans for integrating Doodle 4 Google into your curricula. This would be a fun writing/creative activity!

Tips: Google also has a section where students can learn about the original Google doodler, find out where he gets inspiration, and watch a video of him at work. They have also provided some fun posters to print out advertising the contest in your classroom.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Doodle 4 Google in your classroom. If your class is participating in this fun Google contest, be sure to share your students work with us!

Ad Decoder

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Ad Decoder2516 views

What it is: Ad Decoder is a web game created by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention. The game teaches students how to decode advertisements to learn the difference between real and ideal as well as some of the tactics that advertisers use to get them to buy a product. Students flip through a virtual magazine full of advertisements and try to decode the messages the ad sends off. When students scroll over the message the true message pops up.

How to integrate Ad Decoder into the classroom: Ad Decoder is a great tool to use with students to promote a positive self image and character development. It helps them recognize advertisements and the true messages they send. It can also be used to teach students how to spot ads both on the web and in magazines. (Those advertisers are getting so sneaky…ads are starting to get really good at blending in with the good stuff!) Use the online Ad Decoder tool and as an extension activity, have the students go through other magazines and “decode” the messages in the advertisements. This should spark some very interesting discussion!

Tips: The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has some other quality student activities including food and nutrition, physical activity, safety, and more. Check out the other quality activities and games on the site!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Ad Decoder in your classroom.

Wetpaint

Kelly Tenkely3 Comments on Wetpaint2474 views

What it is: Wetpaint is a free wiki website editor/builder that is EXTREMELY simple to use. (No really, EASY is an understatement!) If you aren’t familiar with wiki’s they are websites that anyone can edit and help grow through collaboration. The most famous wiki is Wikipedia which is a group effort encyclopedia that anyone can add to and edit. Wetpaint has amazing looking templates to use…this is no boring wiki!

How to integrate Wetpaint into the classroom: Wetpaint is an easy to use wiki builder. It provides a place for students to collaborate on projects, it is so simple to use that even primary classrooms could make use of Wetpaint. Wetpaint provides a platform for your students to be the “expert” on a subject. Whatever you are studying in math, language arts, social studies, science, etc. is the perfect subject matter for a wiki. Create a classroom book club where students can write book reviews, suggest books to read as a class, and rate books through a poll. Collaborate with other classrooms, grade levels, or other schools on any subject. Wetpaint provides some different levels of privacy for your wiki, it can be public which means that everyone can edit, semi-private, or private.

Tips: Wetpaint has built in widgets that can be used in your wiki. These include YouTube or Google videos, polls, slide shows, rss feeds, music, and a place to embed code (like a Gabcast podcast).

Take a look at the introduction video on the Wetpaint site… I want my students to make videos like this! So rad (yes I really did say rad!)

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Wetpaint in your classroom.


Viddler

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Viddler3024 views

What it is: Viddler is an AMAZING web application that lets students (or you) upload, enhance, and share digital video quickly and easily right from your web browser. I know, cool right?! The best part is, students can collaborate and comment on each other’s Viddler videos.

How to integrate Viddler into the classroom: Viddler has a million and one uses in the classroom. Record students science experiments and invite other students to comment on what was successful or what they would do differently in the experiment. Have students make a commercial about…well anything. Use your curriculum to guide the videos that your students are creating and then invite them to leave comments on other students videos. Create video tutorials for your classroom and add “secret facts” in the video in the form of comments. There is truly no limit! I often have my students create commercials because they are short and easy to record and share with others. In lieu of a book report, ask students to create a movie trailer type commercial for their book. Video adds a whole new audience for students, you will see creativity bloom. Be sure to check out the Directors Guild post below for some great uses of Viddler! After you record your videos you can embed them in your classroom blog, wiki, or website. Seriously cool huh?!

Tips: Create a class Viddler login where all class videos are recorded and saved. This will save the headache of collecting email addresses and passwords from the younger students…trust me, they will NOT remember them!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Viddler in your classroom.